Re: [Videolib] videolib Digest, FMG collection subscription

I'd be very interested in Hofstra's experiences with their FMG
subscription. We have a media collection that we share with local San
Diego community colleges, and the consortium coordinator is exploring
the idea of contracting with FMG for consortium use.

We did the trial at Hofstra, and have committed to the full Master
Academic Collection for academic year 2009-2010. We will be starting a
subscription to the Humanities and Social Sciences collections (about
3500 titles) on June 30 pending legal approval of the licensing
agreement.

I'd be glad to share experiences, is this something everyone on the list
is interested in? If so, I'll summarize the trial. Let me know.

VIDEOLIB is intended to encourage the broad and lively discussion of
issues relating to the selection, evaluation, acquisition,bibliographic
control, preservation, and use of current and evolving video formats in
libraries and related institutions. It is hoped that the list will serve
as an effective working tool for video librarians, as well as a channel
of communication between libraries,educational institutions, and video
producers and distributors.

Sarah, Thanks for the awesome write up on Films On Demand. I'd like to
point out that all of the things you mentioned related to functionality
are currently being addressed; such as:

1. Searching by Segment vs. Searching by Title -- users and admins will
be able to set their preference for a default option.
2. Flash Videos - Almost all of the active titles now have Flash
available. We uploaded another 500+ Flash files just before the Memorial
holiday.
3) Segment URLs - We may not provide segment URLs for every title's
segments; however, you can use the play list function to create segment
URLs of your choice. All URLs can be posted into a course management
system (Blackboard, Moodle, Angel, etc).
4) Marc Records - In lieu of MARC records we are working on providing
meta-data for every title on Films On Demand at no additional cost. The
information will be accessed by the administrator and can be saved
electronically.

As there seems to be some interest in this topic, I'll summarize our
experience with the trial. We set up the trial by IP address so that we
could mimic our ezproxy access.

I had faculty from across the disciplines test: anthropology, drama,
English, religion, communications, speech-language-hearing sciences,
business, art therapy. I also had staff in Faculty Computing test,
since I suspect they will have to do some classroom, home, and
Blackboard-related support.

Overall, response was extremely positive. The content is impressive;
over 5000 titles in the "Master Academic Collection." Several of the
testers used videos in class and through Blackboard during the trial.
Some examples of titles used: "Young, Muslim, and French: Stories of
Assimilation and Defiance," "Last Call for Guinness? A Famous Brand
Adapts to the 21st Century," and "Shakespeare: The Wars of the Roses."

We did have some technical difficulties with the streaming. FMG is in
the process of converting all the streaming files to Flash format.
(They are converting hundreds of titles a week, I believe, so soon they
should all be Flash.) Some still are available only via Windows Media
player or QuickTime format. With the Flash format, the streaming is
close to seamless and "real time." I had some real trouble streaming /
buffering with QuickTime (on my 3 year old Mac at home) but no trouble
when on campus using Windows Media player. I was able to get technical
support during the trial, and I believe that as a customer this will not
be a problem.

The search mechanism is a bit odd. The default search is a keyword.
It's great for discovery, because each film is broken down into
segments, and each segment has a detailed description. However, at the
time of testing there was no title search function. I am told by FMG
that we can enable the title search function when we have the full
subscription. The in-depth description of the segments is a real bonus.
Each title has a stable URL, so it's easy to embed that or link to it in
Blackboard, your web catalog, wherever. I don't think the segments have
individual URLs.

Based on the positive response from teaching faculty across the
curriculum, we decided to subscribe for 2009-2010. As a sort of trial
period for us for the summer, we will begin a (less expensive)
subscription to the Humanities and Social Sciences Collections (about
3500 titles) on June 30 (pending legal approval of the license),
prorated for the last 2 months of our fiscal year. I am very interested
to see what we can do once the subscription is up and running.
According to the documentation, I should be able (as an administrator)
to measure use very easily, see what titles are being used, etc. This
is important to us for evaluation of the value of the subscription.

I mentioned the discovery tool provided by the segment descriptions. We
have discussed whether to put a link to each title into our online
catalog as a way to promote the database. I inquired from FMG is MARC
records were available, and was told these could be provided for $3.00
each. I think we will not go this route. It's not just the expense of
the records, although that would be hefty for 5000 titles; we also don't
have a large systems staff, and are not highly skilled in Millennium
load profile tables, so this might be beyond our capabilities! I expect
we will try a couple of approaches. One will be modifying cataloging
records and adding 856 fields to titles we already own in DVD or VHS.
The other will be using the administrative function to see which titles
are heavily used, and adding those to the online catalog.

I had a question from a vendor about how this subscription might impact
our purchasing of DVDs. I think this is actually a win/win for all of
us. As a subscriber, we can purchase FMG titles from them at a 50%
discount off the regular price; we will occasionally need to purchase a
title (for example, a professor wants to take the DVD to xxx country to
teach a summer class, doesn't have internet access, etc.). So in that
regard, I will be buying all FMG titles direct from FMG. However, the
money for this subscription is from our electronic resources budget, not
from my media purchasing budget. So I will actually increase the
purchasing power of my media budget, because I won't have to buy as many
FMG titles at close-to-full price.

We see this subscription as just *one* way that the library can legally
provide access to streaming video for our students. It's a piece of the
puzzle. We have had many discussions about purchasing digital rights,
providing streaming video to students, TEACH, etc. The "philosophy" we
agreed on is that the FMG product is an appropriate resource for the
library to provide for our constituents. We (as a library) are not able
to provide budget for streaming of (for example) feature films; Swank is
offering this service now, but we feel that costs for this type of thing
(for example, a journalism professor who wants the whole class to watch
"Good Night and Good Luck") should be borne by the department or passed
along to students via a technology fee.

Please feel free to ask more questions. I will know a lot more about it
when we start the "real" subscription. I'm very excited about it, and
plan to spend some time over the summer learning how to use the database
and figuring out how to promote it to our constituents.

VIDEOLIB is intended to encourage the broad and lively discussion of
issues relating to the selection, evaluation, acquisition,bibliographic
control, preservation, and use of current and evolving video formats in
libraries and related institutions. It is hoped that the list will serve
as an effective working tool for video librarians, as well as a channel
of communication between libraries,educational institutions, and video
producers and distributors.

O Wise Ones,
In order to inject some anecdotal flavor into an article I'm writing on
the
history of media collections in academic libraries, I am soliciting your

memories of media formats throughout the years. From magnetic tape to
MP3s,
it's all fair game.

I'm looking for your personal stories - perhaps as a student, as a
faculty
member or library professional. Your input can be humorous or serious
as
long as it's related to academic library media collections. Please take
a
few moments to share your memories with me directly off-list.
(widz@buffalo.edu) If I use your comments, you will, of course, be
properly
cited. Thank you for your responses.

Lori Widzinski
Media Resources Center
Health Sciences Library
University at Buffalo
State University of New York

I'm curious as to whether any of you still have a u-matic player in your
media areas. We are moving to a new library and we do still have some
of the old umatic videos, but of course they are rarely used and
unavailable in newer formats....anyone still use them in their areas,
have you tossed your old u-matic tapes?
Rhonda

O Wise Ones,
In order to inject some anecdotal flavor into an article I'm writing on
the history of media collections in academic libraries, I am soliciting
your memories of media formats throughout the years. From magnetic tape
to MP3s, it's all fair game.

I'm looking for your personal stories - perhaps as a student, as a
faculty member or library professional. Your input can be humorous or
serious as long as it's related to academic library media collections.
Please take a few moments to share your memories with me directly
off-list.
(widz@buffalo.edu) If I use your comments, you will, of course, be
properly cited. Thank you for your responses.

Lori Widzinski
Media Resources Center
Health Sciences Library
University at Buffalo
State University of New York

VIDEOLIB is intended to encourage the broad and lively discussion of
issues relating to the selection, evaluation, acquisition,bibliographic
control, preservation, and use of current and evolving video formats in
libraries and related institutions. It is hoped that the list will serve
as an effective working tool for video librarians, as well as a channel
of communication between libraries,educational institutions, and video
producers and distributors.

We have one umatic player which is on life-support. MRC has around 600
3/4" titles in storage and we have been copying them over (under
provisions of Sect 108 of the copyright law) onto DVD on an "as needed"
basis. Almost all of the 600 titles are no longer in distribution.

gary handman

> I'm curious as to whether any of you still have a u-matic player in
your
> media areas. We are moving to a new library and we do still have some
> of the old umatic videos, but of course they are rarely used and
> unavailable in newer formats....anyone still use them in their areas,
> have you tossed your old u-matic tapes?
> Rhonda
>
> Rhonda Rosen| Head, Media & Access Services
> Charles Von der Ahe Library | Loyola Marymount University
> One LMU Drive, MS 8200 | Los Angeles, CA 90045-2659
> rrosen@lmu.edu| 310/338-4584|
> www.lmu.edu/library
>
> For up-to-date news and sneak previews of the William H. Hannon
Library
> (opening Summer 2009), check out our New Library
> Blog!www.lmu.edu/hannonblog
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: videolib-bounces@lists.berkeley.edu
> [mailto:videolib-bounces@lists.berkeley.edu] On Behalf Of Lori
Widzinski
> Sent: Thursday, May 28, 2009 8:27 AM
> To: videolib@lists.berkeley.edu
> Subject: [Videolib] Seeking your stories
>
> O Wise Ones,
> In order to inject some anecdotal flavor into an article I'm writing
on
> the history of media collections in academic libraries, I am
soliciting
> your memories of media formats throughout the years. From magnetic
tape
> to MP3s, it's all fair game.
>
> I'm looking for your personal stories - perhaps as a student, as a
> faculty member or library professional. Your input can be humorous or
> serious as long as it's related to academic library media collections.
> Please take a few moments to share your memories with me directly
> off-list.
> (widz@buffalo.edu) If I use your comments, you will, of course, be
> properly cited. Thank you for your responses.
>
> Lori Widzinski
> Media Resources Center
> Health Sciences Library
> University at Buffalo
> State University of New York
>
>
>
>
> VIDEOLIB is intended to encourage the broad and lively discussion of
> issues relating to the selection, evaluation,
acquisition,bibliographic
> control, preservation, and use of current and evolving video formats
in
> libraries and related institutions. It is hoped that the list will
serve
> as an effective working tool for video librarians, as well as a
channel
> of communication between libraries,educational institutions, and video
> producers and distributors.
>
> VIDEOLIB is intended to encourage the broad and lively discussion of
> issues relating to the selection, evaluation,
acquisition,bibliographic
> control, preservation, and use of current and evolving video formats
in
> libraries and related institutions. It is hoped that the list will
serve
> as an effective working tool for video librarians, as well as a
channel of
> communication between libraries,educational institutions, and video
> producers and distributors.
>

We have a Umatic deck in Archives. Last summer we reviewed our Umatic
videos, and decided to transfer some to DVD, based on their condition
and whether or not they were unavailable for purchase in other formats.
We haven't actually tossed the Umatic tapes--except for those that were
no longer in decent condition--we have them in storage.

I'm curious as to whether any of you still have a u-matic player in your
media areas. We are moving to a new library and we do still have some
of the old umatic videos, but of course they are rarely used and
unavailable in newer formats....anyone still use them in their areas,
have you tossed your old u-matic tapes?
Rhonda

O Wise Ones,
In order to inject some anecdotal flavor into an article I'm writing on
the history of media collections in academic libraries, I am soliciting
your memories of media formats throughout the years. From magnetic tape
to MP3s, it's all fair game.

I'm looking for your personal stories - perhaps as a student, as a
faculty member or library professional. Your input can be humorous or
serious as long as it's related to academic library media collections.
Please take a few moments to share your memories with me directly
off-list.
(widz@buffalo.edu) If I use your comments, you will, of course, be
properly cited. Thank you for your responses.

Lori Widzinski
Media Resources Center
Health Sciences Library
University at Buffalo
State University of New York

VIDEOLIB is intended to encourage the broad and lively discussion of
issues relating to the selection, evaluation, acquisition,bibliographic
control, preservation, and use of current and evolving video formats in
libraries and related institutions. It is hoped that the list will serve
as an effective working tool for video librarians, as well as a channel
of communication between libraries,educational institutions, and video
producers and distributors.

VIDEOLIB is intended to encourage the broad and lively discussion of
issues relating to the selection, evaluation, acquisition,bibliographic
control, preservation, and use of current and evolving video formats in
libraries and related institutions. It is hoped that the list will serve
as an effective working tool for video librarians, as well as a channel
of communication between libraries,educational institutions, and video
producers and distributors.

VIDEOLIB is intended to encourage the broad and lively discussion of issues relating to the selection, evaluation, acquisition,bibliographic control, preservation, and use of current and evolving video formats in libraries and related institutions. It is hoped that the list will serve as an effective working tool for video librarians, as well as a channel of communication between libraries,educational institutions, and video producers and distributors.
Received on Thu May 28 11:31:33 2009